Pages

Friday, October 16, 2015

The Real Challenge: Getting It Right

This image from an Oct. 14, 2015, broadcast on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network reportedlyshows missile launchers in an underground tunnel at an unknown location in Iran.

DDGD –
October 15, 2015

Dear colleagues and subscribers, I can definitely use your
help at this stage in order to keep managing my new blog and newsletter and to
expand the scope of my coverage to include some field work as well. Please use
the contact form to reach out
to me with suggestions and/or pledges.

Today’s Post is brought to you by: The Brotherhood of
Psychopathic Dictators: Always ready to fuck your freedom and drink your
milkshake.

Editorial Comment

Not all rule-breakers are visionaries. Most of them, in
fact, are delusional and tragicomic figures.

Articles & Commentary

Though it deniesreports
of Cuban troops in Syria, the White House admits that “Russia would be looking
for more nations to join its campaign to assist Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad
in maintaining power.”

Meanwhile, there is no denying the fact that Iran
has already sent hundreds of troops, some
say thousands, for that purpose, as plans for pounding Aleppo are said to
enter the implementation phase any day now. But it’s the American-backed rebels,
though the backing seems more a matter of words than deeds, that will be the
main targets of the Russian-Iranian Alliance, for all RT reporting to the
contrary. Indeed, the regulatory agency in the UK has
recently called out the Kremlin-backed network for publishing false and fabricated
reports about the conflict in eastern Ukraine. There is no reason to think that
the channel has discovered ethics and humanity when it comes to covering the crisis
in Syria.

For its part, the Islamic State continues to benefit from:
1) the free publicity and air time it receives, as all players in Syria claim
to be fighting it, and 2) the fact that few of these players, mostly Kurdish
militias and remnants of the FSA, are actually fighting it, to entrench itself
further in the territories it controls in Syria, and to expand far beyond that broken
country’s borders.

All the way to the
Asia Pacific region in fact, where at some interesting point in the
not-so-far future, it will, somehow, emerge as a critical factor in guiding the
dynamics of the upcoming struggle for the South
China Sea.

And as Putin, just like Obama in fact, continues to be seen
as champion
of Shia Muslims, Sunni communities around the world will continue to breed
extremists.

In the meantime, Iran continues
to up the ante and mark its territory, the aspirations of millions of Syrians notwithstanding.

*

This report
(in Arabic) claims that Germany has recently received an Iraqi Shia refugee who
was a leading figure in the pro-Assad Shia militias that operated at one point in
Damascus. There is now a growing list of such claims in Germany alone, as all
different sorts of figures seek to start a new life in Europe.

*

In this comment/question of his, Fareed Zakaria captures
the false dilemma that allegedly confronts America every time there is a crisis
in the Middle East:

“But when we think about Syria, which
is to my mind more messy, because what you’re talking about is any U.S.
involvement would have to be aimed at essentially dislodging Assad from power.
Okay. We dislodged Hussein from power. We thought we had good guys who are
going to take — pick up, total chaos, civil war, 10 years, 400,000 people dead.
We did it in Libya, we dislodged Gaddafi, we thought it would work out well. We
had democrats, total chaos. We did it in Yemen. Total chaos. It feels like we
know how this movie will end. If Assad is dislodged from Damascus, what do you
think is going to happen? Total chaos.”

This is the problem in this reasonably sounding exposition:
there is no attempt at analyzing the reasons behind America’s failure in any of
these situations. But this is not surprising really, because the only lesson which
Zakaria and other Obamacolytes want us to learn is not to
intervene, not even in these cases where all indications suggest that the price
for our nonintervention will be the same incurred by a failed one. That is: total
chaos.

But the actual challenge that is facing us in this world is not
about whether to intervene or not intervene, but about deciding when intervention
is right, and how to get intervention right. For in this forever
turbulent world, there will always situations when intervention is necessary
even if unwanted. Syria was such a situation, and it still is. For it is clear
by now, for those who are not wearing ideological blinders, that by avoiding
intervention a security challenge that will last for decades has been created. No,
this is not a retroactive judgment, this was actually a prediction, or rather a
rational deduction, made by many, including yours truly writing for my earlier
blog, Syrian Revolution Digest. Obama and his acolytes were quite aware of these
deductions, and chose to ignore them. And now they choose to obfuscate and do
what has now become their usual song and dance: the Shirk
‘N’ Shift.

*

In one of its usual concisely written articles, “Tipsy taboo: Alcohol is a reality
in Muslim lands, but discussing it remains off limits,” The Economist tries
to breach new grounds but ends up falling victims to careless generalizations
itself. Indeed, alcohol consumption is part of daily life in most
Muslims-majority countries, even those claiming to follow Sharia Law, such
Saudi Arabia. This fact should not be too surprising really considering that the
Middle East is the birthplace of fermented alcohol. But here is where the Economist
gets too economical in its exploration of the issue: yes, there are indeed
countries where discussing alcohol in public is forbidden on pains of getting
flogged, countries like Saudi Arabia and Sudan for instance, but in most other
countries, we can sing about it, and not just talk.

The Economist gets also uneconomic in its attempt to
classify those involved in alcohol consumption in certain countries. Somehow,
in Lebanon, only the secular-minded wealthy folk consume alcohol. Apparently the
Economist correspondents haven’t heard of homemade arak, the drink through
which most young adults, not only in Lebanon but throughout the Levant, shatter
their alcohol virginity.

As for Saudi Arabia, let it be known that most alcohol
consumed there is consumed by Saudis and smuggled specifically for them, not
foreign diplomats.

The No-Fly Zone: Comments, statements & policies that just make no
sense (i.e. they don’t fly)

Al-Nusra
offers 3.5 million dollars to kill Bashar al-Assad. While it’s quite likely
that this is exactly the fate that awaits Bashar Al-Assad at the end of his
little macabre sojourn in our midst, it’s unlikely for such development to materialize
as a result of this self-serving incitement by Al-Nusra. Still: any takers?

Video(s) of the Day

Artistic Delirium

“Lazarus Falling” by Ammar Abdulhamid from "Reflections on Liberty and Revolution Series - a digital deconstruction of Delacroix's famous Oeuvre "Liberty leading the people."

No comments:

Post a Comment

Go ahead, patronize me!

IGD: We finally hit a perfect 10. We now offically live in the Age of Total Delirirum

The IGD or the Index of Global Delirium reflects the state of delirium in the world at a particular moment in time using a 1 to 10 measure, with 10 denoting the highest level of delirium. Levels of delirium change on the basis of various current developments such as instability, wars, terrorist activities, elections, sports events, financial meltdowns, leaks of sensitive information, etc. Note:levels of violence and delirium do not always coincide. IGD levels may rise even when violence levels seem to take a downturn.

Dystopia Today: The Home Front

Dystopia Today: The Global Stage

I Am Syria

Educators will find theI Am Syria websiteto be quite useful when it comes to finding audio-visual materials explaining the Syrian Crisis in general and the plight of the Syrian Refugees in particular. The site is maintained by a small team of volunteer educators and receives tens of thousands of visits per months.I am honored to be involved in this effort.

Recent Entries into The Holy Deliricon

Recent Entries into The Holy Delirindex

Recent Observations by Delirian Mundi

Recent Scenes from Theatrum Deliria

Recent Episodes from The Cauldron

Syria: A Fire Within

As anti-Assad demonstrations erupt across Syria, Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled pioneer of the pro-democracy movement must convince US leaders that they have allies on the ground. Or else those allies, and the entire pro-democracy movement, may forever perish.